Thank you for your prayers and support! Since our last newsletter, we’ve made some ministry changes which we’re excited to tell you about:
- We transitioned out of dedicated service in the church where I was serving as co-pastor/teaching elder. This doesn’t mean we’ll never go back to visit or that we won’t partner up for select events, but just that we aren’t exclusively serving there on a weekly basis anymore. After being there for over two and a half years, it was a bittersweet but necessary departure, as we felt lead by God to expand into other activities.
- After making ourselves available for other ministry activities, we started visiting other local churches and getting to know their pastors and congregations. We’ve been amazed at the outpouring of genuine love and fellowship, and pastors have been quick to invite us to share in their various ministries.
- I also attended a meeting of an association of local pastors, where I was introduced to even more pastors and ministries. I hope to have more to share on this in the future.
Ministry updates
So what exactly are we doing ministry-wise now? As churches here congregate three or four times a week, I’ve been able to do lots of preaching as a guest preacher. We’ve also been invited to visit (and preach at) several outlying daughter churches which were planted by local churches. We haven’t partnered exclusively with one church or one specific ministry yet. Maybe that’s best, since we can visit and serve at a different church almost every day of the week. As always, we’ll let the Lord lead us where He wants us.
Going forward, I still want to put together and deliver some classes/presentations for church leaders and laypeople in order to support them in their walk with God. We also have some Bibles that we’d like to distribute, potentially on one of our visits to one of the more remote church plants (where Bibles are harder to come by).
Given all of this, please join us in praying for the following things:
- That we not get bogged down by the opposition which inevitably occurs any time one starts a new ministry
- That the Lord continue to lead us to the specific ministries He wants us involved in
- For the provision (spiritual, physical, emotional, and financial) we need to do what He is calling us to do
As always, please also pray that we be given opportunities to share the gospel, and that we may do so boldly and plainly (Colossians 4:3-4).
Below are pictures from a recent visit to a remote church plant we visited. It’s not far from where we live, but took about an hour and a half to get there due to the inaccessibility of the “road”, which included a scary crossing over a creaky bridge whose floor was made from seemingly rotted wooden planks. Our hats are off to the people who live in this community and make the trip multiple times a week.
Homestead updates
Our new chicken coop is finished. We’re now working on a ferrocement water tank next to the chicken coop so we can capture rain water from the roof. Ferrocement is concrete spread over an armature, rather like working with papier-mâché (but using rebar and concrete instead of wood and paper).
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